Special Interest Groups and the Demise of America (Part I)

Nothing frustrates me more about today’s political landscape than the influence of special interest groups in American politics. I intend to investigate some of America’s most powerful lobbyists in an attempt to understand their intentions, power, and consequences.

The AIPAC is the “American Israel Public Affairs Committee”, America’s Pro-Israel Lobby. They are the 3rd most powerful lobbying group on Capital Hill.

Does anybody not agree that the 2 biggest causes of our issues in the Middle East are: 1. our continued dependence on an open supply of oil from that region, and 2. our continued support of the state of Israel? Any long-term solution in the Middle East needs to start with a massive effort to decrease our dependence on radical governments in the Middle East to supply our oil, and to immediately withdraw all support to Israel.

So naturally, the interests of “America’s Pro-Israel Lobby” run contrary to that of the majority of Americans. So why does the American Congress almost unanimously support pro-Israel legislation on a consistent basis, despite it being contrary to the best interest of the American people? Well, it does not take a genius to figure out that when a 100,000 plus member organization liberally donates hundreds of millions of dollars annually to financing our politician’s campaigns; the Jewish lobby’s interests might be more influential than say, my own.

To be fair to the AIPAC, I visited their webpage at http://www.aipac.org to understand their mission in their own words. If you check out their “About” page they give you a list of their missions. Here are a few of their gems:

Extending U.S.-backed loan guarantees to Israel

Condemning Iran

Increasing military aid to Israel

Yeah AIPAC, I would love for our country to continue to fund your ridiculous religious war in the Middle East against Palestine. I also am very excited to go to war with Iran – the bigger and uglier brother of Iraq. Fight your own battles Israel (Edited) – leave America out of it.

So how successful is the AIPAC in their mission to align Israel and American policy in the Middle East? Currently, America spends about 3 billion dollars a year financing Israel’s military, creating the 3rd most powerful military force in the world. Despite being a relatively successful country, Israel is the #1 benefactor of U.S. foreign aid in the entire world. All three leading presidential candidates endorse their support of the AIPAC and Israel. (Not surprisingly, after doing a little research, Ron Paul is one of the few outspoken critics of the AIPAC in congress)

What makes this particular lobby even scarier, is that not only do they control American politics, they control the American Media. I challenge you to google a major media outlet that has published something negative about the AIPAC.
“Today, seven Jewish Americans run the vast majority of US television networks, the printed press, the Hollywood movie industry, the book publishing industry, and the recording industry. Most of these industries are bundled into huge media conglomerates run by the following seven individuals:

• Gerald Levin, CEO and Director of AOL Time Warner
• Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company
• Edgar Bronfman, Sr., Chairman of Seagram Company Ltd
• Edgar Bronfman, Jr, President and CEO of Seagram Company Ltd and head of Universal Studios
• Sumner Redstone, Chairman and CEO of Viacom, Inc
• Dennis Dammerman, Vice Chairman of General Electric
• Peter Chernin, President and Co-COO of News Corporation Limited

19 Responses to “Special Interest Groups and the Demise of America (Part I)”

-Some excellent investigational reporting Kev. Though I am pretty sure this is the begining of the end for our website. Once the Jews (Greenberg, Lawson, etc) get hold of this slander I think we are done for. It was a good run while it lasted. Shalom

Very interesting. It looks like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are finally coming to fruition. I’d actually like to know why America originally decided that it would be a great idea to back Israel but am too lazy to do one of those internet searches. Kevin?

Also, in the early 50’s, basically all Middle Eastern countries drove out their Jewish population completely. That, combined with hundreds of thousands of European holocaust survivors, led to a massive immigration of Jews to Israel.

Israel was then founded illegitimately because of the west’s sympathy for the Jewish plight. Who cares about those Palestinian mongrels that already lived there?

Americans will always support Israel for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic. Israel always plays the victim, and gets the benefits of our sympathy (regardless of the fact that they are the 3rd most powerful military force in the world).

I am sympathetic to what the Jews have endured over history. I cried like a baby during Schindler’s List. That doesn’t mean that Israel should be able to wage religious wars in the Middle East with Americas support though.

I’m not going to lie, AIPAC sucks. They do not have Israel’s or the US best interest in hand and I wish they would go away. Imagine if the money that went to AIPAC actually went to something good.

We might as well call every fucking country illegitimate(Just look at our beautiful country and the atrocities they committed in the name of land). I am not going to argue that creating Israel was a studpid idea, but its there, live with it.

Israel is not responsbile that the entire muslim world turned their backs on the arabs that inhabit the areas in/and around israel. If Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, etc. would have absorbed the Arabs like they promised they would when the 1M or so arabs who left Israel.

Israel is not waging religious wars in the Middle East. They have a fringe religious movement that they are forced to protect in the West Bank and E Jerusalem. The politicians do not have the necessary balls to eliminate the settlements. I am all for moving out of the west bank and giving them the gaza. But, if you look at Israel side, they are in a no-win situation. Hamas will never stop their war against Israel until Israel is destroyed.

Btw, your post wasn’t that bad until you began w/ your anti-semitic conspiracy theories. And no, I don’t care if you are anti-israel, thats not anti-semitic like our friends at AIPAC like to claim.

Wow. Congratulations Kevin on being the newest addition to my bludgeon to death with a spiked bat list. The list goes like this: 1. David Duke (Head American White Supremacist) 2. Mel Gibson 3. Kevin Hinton 4. Jeff Goldblum (Just a weird D-bag) 5. Carrot Top (has bigger muscles than me). So last night I thought I would check on the progress of hoboboobies because there are usually some cool things being talked about like MLS coming to Seattle and hallucinating the plot line of Trading Spaces and somehow tying it to a discussion on charity…..pretty fucking hilarious. However the post I found last night really did not have me laughing so hard.

While being an American I can recognize the situation of giving another country like Israel tons of money not making a lot of sense. Additionally how they are worthy of so much aid money, and if our relationship with Israel is in the end beneficial. I too would like to know the answer to these questions. I would not even be opposed to cutting down the ridiculous amount of aid we give Israel. However, allow me to strongly stress that cutting support to Israel would most likely be a death sentence, but maybe in Kevin’s and scarily others minds thats ok.

I think this was at the heart of Kevin’s post, and I want to reiterate I do not have a problem with it. The concept is not new, yet none the less provocative. It is basically the delivery of that main point that had me so shocked that one of my friends seriously wrote the shit in the year 2008. “I also am very excited to go to war with Iran – the bigger and uglier brother of Iraq. Fight your own battles illegitimate Jew state – leave America out of it.” Yes the pro Israeli lobby and Israel condemns Iran and this is crazy. Wait, who doesn’t condemn Iran? Who wants that crazed Iranian dictator acquiring nuclear weapons? Because Israel condemns Iran within reason does not in any way translate to a plea to Americans to fight their wrongfully labelled religious war. I could nit pick several other view points with which I strongly disagree like how the US supporting Israel is a bigger cause of American conflict in the Middle East than continued American invasion to rape, burn, pillage and bomb the shit out of the region like cool ass pirates is, but I would rather explore whether or not Kevin is sipping on a festering punch bowl of HATERADE, is an actual racist, or is just a severely outspoken patriot.

The Jewish minority is probably the most successful in America, and as Corey and I discussed, are thought of negatively because of an elitist aire that may or may not cling to some of them. I mean, I think I am probably the smartest, best looking swinging dick in America and I refuse to talk to Mexicans due to their lack of education, but I totally have black and handicapped friends, so I am in no way an elitist.*** Maybe its just the fact that Jews have such huge noses. However the way Hinton uses a quote to illustrate how 7 Jewish CEOs basically run shit, suggesting in my opinion that they deceive the general public on what gets heard or reported through a selective and self serving filter or how they use their influence to achieve the same ends is just reminiscent of naughty naughty propaganda.

Kevin, you referred to Israel as the “illegitimate Jew state,” a label which doesn’t really shine with any kind of respect. Do you dislike Jewish people? Everybody makes fun of Gay people myself included, (I am secretly gay) but I remember an interesting yet appalling comment you made about gay people, which lead me to think you actually denounce them as people (the comment included a special relationship with one’s sister). Do you seriously hate gay people? How do you feel about black people? How do you feel about black people drinking at white water fountains? How do you feel about Lenny Kravits, the famous black half Jewish entertainer? If I banged and knocked up a black chick, and our half black half Jewish offspring turned out to be gay, how convinced would you be that it was the Anti-Christ abomination? Ok, I am done being the offended non-observant Jew. I apologize for probably taking Kevin’s viewpoints out of context, for even taking his rant seriously. Kevin, I will await your comment of whether or not you were joking. Excellent job at stirring up the pot.

(note: I have not yet read our manischewitz drinking brothers 2 above posts yet so forgive me if I duplicate what they say. I will read theirs after I post this)

Again Big Dog, you know how to arouse a spirited debate. My first rule on people I will debate with goes, please do not quote people that base their careers on UFO and conspiracy theories. By that I mean your rense.com article that you quote. Go to http://www.rense.com to see how ridiculous of a site it is and then read about the man at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Rense.

But you did get me curious about special interest groups and lobbying. Here is what a few more reputable sites give.

and from publicintegrity.org
“How the pharmaceutical industry gets its way in Washington.”
“The pharmaceutical and health products industry has spent more than $800 million in federal lobbying and campaign donations at the federal and state levels in the past seven years, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found. Its lobbying operation, on which it reports spending more than $675 million, is the biggest in the nation. No other industry has spent more money to sway public policy in that period.”http://www.publicintegrity.org/rx/report.aspx?aid=723

So basically I agree with your problem with special interest groups in a democracy, they need to be checked or they will become abusive. I looked at a lot of sites that all quoted different numbers and claimed different enemies as people who are buying congress. I don’t think you pulled your AIPAC hating out of nowhere and I haven’t watched your video yet, but I just think the jury is still out on how much a group of old powerful hebrew men really control America.

My main concern is that you may want to check your hat, its looking like its made of tinfoil more and more every day.

– I personally have nothing against Jewish people. I know quite a few of them and for the most part they are pretty cool dudes. That being said I have to say from my personal experience Israelis are almost unanimous fucking annoying. As far as absolute pieces of shit you meet traveling they have to be the worst followed closely by #2 Russians and #3 Americans. In South America they are absolutely all over. Not only are they really annoying, they are also incredible rude, inconsiderate, and arrogant. That of course like every opinion someone has is a horribly rash generalization, but if not for generalization we wouldn’t be able to say anything would we. Also I did meet a couple really awesome Israelis that I really enjoy traveling with, they played guitar and sang in Hebrew (which for the recorded sounded fucking horrible).

– I think Kevin’s critique was mostly about how lobbyist control our government and completely shit on the actual interest of the people. His anti-Semitic rant to me seemed to be somewhat of an after thought. (though to be honest I do not consider it anti-semitic just anti our current situation)

– My final point really has nothing to do with this post, but just something I was thinking about after reading these discussions. My thought is that I dont understand the concept of getting offended by stuff. It just makes no sense to me. I understand you may say “Corey you are a 5’11” 175 lb, Heterosexual American Caucasian, with good hearing and vision, the ability to read and walk, what the fuck do you have to get offended about”

Well for starters I have a couple things.

I am 1/8 Native American- something I honestly take a lot of pride in.

My sister is a lesbian- something I am also very supportive of.

I was poor as shit as a kid- And people fucking hate poor people. I honestly think that most racial hatred is actually just misapplied hatred for the poor. If Mexicans, Blacks, or those filthy Irish were a majority upper middle class would people still feel the same way about them? I strongly doubt it, almost all of peoples ignorant views of racial groups are actually related to relative social status (they steal, kill each other, are lazy, etc) Black people don’t steal shit, poor people steal shit, it just so happens there are a lot more poor black people in most large areas than poor white people. People who are socially and economically oppressed commit crimes. Colin Powell’s kids aren’t out on the street smoking crack and taggin shit (I didn’t fact check that statement). Race just gives ignorant people a simple way to classify and focus their judgement and hatred.

Now that being said if someone said something about Indians, Lesbians, or the poor I cannot possible understand a circumstance where I would be hurt, offended, or even really bothered. I just dont get the logical connection that someone opinion has over me. I have a ton of opinions that are probably wrong, why should stupid peoples’ retarded opinions get to me. Maybe I am wrong, but I think that this is just another case of people just reacting the way they are told they should react to certain situation and not actually thinking about how they really feel. If someone calling you a name is bothering you you probably need to take a long hard look at yourself as a adult human being. That of course is again just my opinion.

-If I was a black person I would much rather someone walk down the street yelling Nigger than hold all that shit inside and catching me by suprise when I go in for a job. With the guy yelling on the street you at least know you are getting a true picture. Oh this guy is a fucking idiot and I think I will go ahead and discount the rest of the stupid shit he has to say.

Seriously Eli, Joe, and other offended readers – I apologize for my comment of Israel being an “Illegitimate Jew State”, that definitely has a racist tone to it that doesn’t reflect my true feelings. Honestly, I feel like those off the cuff kind of comments are consistently made on this site and in conversation among our friends, and I assumed were not taken seriously. In hindsight, when matched with a long rant that was intended to be taken seriously, I can definitely see how it would be misinterpreted. I think that anybody that knows me very well would realize that I am not a hateful person at all, and am very far from racist. Actually, I am quite rattled by the tone of your post, Joe. I hope that you know that I do not hate or even dislike Jewish people.

I will respond to Eli first, then Joe, then Parker, then Corey –

Eli – I agree with your analogy that Israel isn’t any less legitimate that the United States. So maybe we do need to “just deal with it”. But the timing is different. If I lived in the 17 or 1800s I probably would be ranting about how the US is illegitimately expanding west, and I would support the Indians.

It is amazing how history repeats itself. Indians and Palestinians are labeled as the savages/terrorists because they don’t fight their war with modern technology, and are the less “civilized” culture. A Palestinian can suicide bomb a market and kill 30 people and their would be uproar heard around the world, but a Israel cruise missile can kill hundreds of innocent Palestinians and you wont here a thing.

Honestly Eli, I hope that you can take some more time to explain the history you reference of the Arab worlds failed commitment to absorb the Arab population that left Israel. I am naive to that particular piece of Israel’s history.

Again, I agree that my use of “waging war” is too strong and misleading. I do not think that Israel is simply defending its people from insurgents though, and am not comfortable with my tax dollars supporting their military efforts. I also agree that Israel is in a tough situation – I just am not convinced that it is America’s place or in America’s interests to aligning our Middle Eastern policies with Israel.

As to my conspiracy theory/anti-Semitic rant that you are frustrated with, I assume that you are referring to my comment about the Jews controlling the media. I am responding to that with Greenberg so see there.

Overall though – I was really hoping to hear from you on this one Lev – and I appreciate the feedback.

Joe – Would a withdrawal of our aid to Israel be a death sentence? I definitely would not be OK with that. My logic would tell me though, that the 3rd most powerful military in the world supported by a worldwide network of ridiculously wealthy, powerful, and influential Jews would be better suited to take care of themselves that a large portion of the world facing tough times.

If you are correct though, and there would be some sort of Jewish genocide as we disengage our Israel support, I think it poses a bigger question. What responsibility does America have to defend other countries in such a time of need? I certainly don’t think that the Jews deserve our help more than the people of Rwanda do. But I think that Rwanda deserves our help, so the Jews probably do. I guess I think that it should be a worldwide effort of free nations to defend all men’s right to life. I do not think that that is at the root of my issue with the AIPAC though.

If AIPAC’s lobbying position on Iran is for America to just announce “Iran – we do not approve of your development of nuclear weapons” then yeah, that is fine. In reality though, Israel is the #1 target of a potential Iranian nuclear missile, and I think it is fairly obvious and generally accepted that the AIPAC is lobbying not just for America to condemn Iran’s nuclear policy, but to use our military power to do something about it. And yes, I do have a problem with that. First of all, as I have mentioned before, I do not think that as a country with the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world that we have any right to stop Iran from developing their own.

I agree that there are bigger concerns than our support of Israel in the Middle East such as the “continued American invasion to rape, burn, pillage and bomb the shit out of the region like cool ass pirates”. I just think that invasion is directly tied to our oil interest. I said that I think in my post. I just think that in addition to our oil driven military efforts in the Middle East, our continued support of Israel is a huge issue driving the Muslim worlds hatred of America. I think that Bin Laden sited our support of Israel as a key reason for his attacks on 9/11. It really isn’t even up for debate.

Those 7 Jews do run those massive media conglomerates. Is it just conspiracy theory to infer that they might influence their companies with a pro-Jewish agenda? It is a fact that there is a massive amount of Jews in the media. It is also very controversial for any news publication to report anything that is anti-Israel, and it makes more sense for journalists and news reporters to avoid anti-Israel stories for fear of being labeled an anti-Semite. Personally, I do believe that there is a Jewish bias in America’s media, and I believe that any reasonable effort put forward research this would indicate that it is a much more supportable stance than the propaganda you infer that it is.

Do I hate gay people? Not at all. I just have a natural discomfort when I see homosexual men kiss, and I thought about it for a while to try and determine if it is just the Spokane in me, or if there is anything legitimately wrong with homosexuality. I determined that the pro-gay stance is that people should be able to perform whatever sexual act that they want as long as it is consensual and not hurting anybody. I cannot logically differentiate gay sex from sex with your sister, which I find interesting, and also a compelling argument that if you are pro-gay that you also have to be pro-sibling sex. I am uncomfortable with both, but don’t have a logical reason to support my discomfort, so currently I am both pro gays and pro sibling-sexists.

In summing up this insanely long response to Joe – I don’t hate Jews despite my unintentional racist comment – it was a joke and I hope that you believe that. I actually have a lot of respect for the Jewish community and their values/successes. I do hate the AIPAC and their agenda with American politics, and I also hate that our political system even allows itself to be controlled by special interest groups. I also have issues with Israeli foreign policy, and do not appreciate the AIPAC’s goals to make Israel and American foreign policy one in the same. I also believe that it is dangerous for politicians and journalists in America to speak out against Israeli injustices due to likelihood of being labeled an anti-Semite, and that is a problem.

There are obviously many different ways to rank the power of special interest groups in America – please watch the documentary I linked to in my post if you do not believe in the power of the AIPAC though.

Corey – I very much enjoyed your comment. I am sick of writing right now, as I am sure anybody (nobody) who has actually read all this stuff I wrote is sick of reading my stuff. I’ll respond tomorrow.

Most violence in Israel this weekend in over a year. Maybe the media is not bias, but I think it is wierd that when they report that there have been 70 deaths in the past 2 days as a result of Israeli air strikes in Gaza, that they forget to mention that over half of those were civilians including women, children, and a new-born baby. Another military effort I am proud my tax dollars are funding. Go Israel.

I mean, I realize that the Hamas is a terrorist organization, and that it is messed up that they use the Palestinian civilians as human shields, but I don’t think that gives Israel the green light to bomb them anyways. If the Hamas were hiding behind a bunch of American civilians, would it be cool for Israel to launch air strikes, killing dozens of American civilians? Of course not. But Palestinians are not considered real people, so they get away with it.